Baked chicken and rice is not just a delicious choice for dinner. This meal appeals to people for many different reasons. A quick look at the ingredients will tell you that it is an inexpensive dish and that counts for something in this economic environment.
It is also easy to make. This matters a great deal to someone who has to cook for a family or group after a long day of work. Perhaps the most important feature of this dish, though, is its variability. You can add a wide range of spices and other ingredients to turn a basic plate of chicken and rice into something exotic.
You should not overlook the essential healthiness of this meal, either. Chicken is the healthiest of the meats and a good source of protein without a high complement of fat. Rice is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates to provide a source of energy. In addition, rice is a good source of more than 15 vitamins and minerals as well as fiber to support digestion.
Baked Chicken and Rice Ingredients
• Chicken breast halves are the best main ingredients for this recipe but you can really make it with almost any part of the chicken. Boneless chicken will be easier to apportion and skinless pieces will be healthier. Use the cut of meat that appeals to you or that is most available. Four chicken breasts could easily make eight adequate servings.
• Use uncooked white rice. The amount will depend on how much chicken that you use. One and one-half cups of rice will serve easily with four chicken breasts. You can also increase or decrease the amount of rice to affect the appearance of the meal.
• Use condensed mushroom soup to create a base that will become medium for the flavor to pass from the chicken into the rice and from the spices into the chicken. Two cups should be sufficient.
• Two or two and a half cups of milk should accompany the mushroom soup. Do not use too much milk or you risk turning the meal into a soup.
• Two cans of sliced mushrooms will adorn the meal and absorb flavor.
• Two ounces of dry onion soup add crucial flavoring to the dish.
Tips for Baking Chicken
If you are planning on making baked chicken rice but you have never prepared it previously, look over the following tips.
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
• While the oven is heating, cut the chicken breasts in halves so that you have a total of eight pieces if you began with four.
• Pour the condensed mushroom soup and milk together in a single container and blend thoroughly. You can do this by hand. Set aside one cup of this mixture. Mix the remainder with the rice, the sliced mushrooms and one ounce of the dried onion soup.
• Ladle this same mixture into a baking dish. A 9×13 dish should suffice. Set the chicken breast halves on top. Now take the milk and mushroom soup mixture that you set aside earlier and pour it over the chicken. Sprinkle all of this with the remaining ounce of dry onion soup.
• Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
• Bake the whole thing for one hour at 350 degrees F. Remove cover and then return to baking it for 15 more minutes.
• Let the dish cool for 10 minutes before your try to serve it.
Once you have tried to prepare this dish once, other variations will come easily to you. Add the spices that you want or play with the amount of basic ingredients to suit your tastes. Baked chicken and rice can transform into a variety of pleasing meals.
Photo by jellaluna, Creative Commons Attribution